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Thread: What color is the sun?

  1. #61
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doc View Post
    The same can be said for a red lightbulb, or a green lightbulb etc etc.
    Well yes it can, but it is a matter of degree. A red lightbulb is red by merit of absorption of the majority of other wavelengths, and is a strongly peaked distribution. The "peakedness" is the degree.

    Quote Originally Posted by Doc View Post
    The nitty gritty of this topic here, is really about what we perceive as white, which as it happens; is almost any dominating colour that we're enveloped with for long enough, our brains just have to set a white balance.
    The question was "what colour is the sun?", not "what colour does the sun appear?" - ie one of intrinsic nature, not perception.

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    Color is all about perception. In physics there are no colors, only spectral power distributions.

  3. #63
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    Quote Originally Posted by smokeAndMirrors View Post
    Well yes it can, but it is a matter of degree. A red lightbulb is red by merit of absorption of the majority of other wavelengths, and is a strongly peaked distribution. The "peakedness" is the degree.



    The question was "what colour is the sun?", not "what colour does the sun appear?" - ie one of intrinsic nature, not perception.

    Ahh, but it was a retorical question really. It took me several posts and a week or two to realise that this is a thread that you read between the lines. You answered the question correctly with your first post, as I believe I did with the bulb analogy. Lasers of course are monochromatic, which proves how easy it is to fool our eyes, with white made by just 3 emission lines.

    As we're always discussing colour balance (white balance really) of our RGB projectors, I believe the point of this thread was; you do not have to conform to an exact number of Watts of each relative colour, so long as you are somewhere in the ballpark; you will have an *apparent* white from your projector. Sometimes the most unlikely collection of lasers defies the theory
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  4. #64
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    Quote Originally Posted by smokeAndMirrors View Post
    Well yes it can, but it is a matter of degree. A red lightbulb is red by merit of absorption of the majority of other wavelengths, and is a strongly peaked distribution. The "peakedness" is the degree.



    The question was "what colour is the sun?", not "what colour does the sun appear?" - ie one of intrinsic nature, not perception.
    Quote Originally Posted by tocket View Post
    Color is all about perception. In physics there are no colors, only spectral power distributions.
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    Or you could just put it as eloquently as the Guru of colour; Mr Tocket, and save a shit load of typing.
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  5. #65
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    Quote Originally Posted by tocket View Post
    Color is all about perception. In physics there are no colors, only spectral power distributions.
    Meh. Then the question is oxymoronic, based on a category error. Its second half asks "is the sun?", clearly requiring an ontological assement pertaining to an intrinsic trait or set of traits, but asking us - if I am to accept your definition of "colour" to assign a subjective value to an objective quantity. So either the question is badly posed - and therefore we need debate no further - or the definition of "colour" admits that it be well-posed. In that latter case, "colour" then either can be applied intrinsically (hence my previous post holds), or conversely is subjective, from which there is no point posting, because if I perceive the sun as red (or square) due to a vision impairment then it would be correct to say the sun is red (or square). I would contend that squareness is not a quantity that can be empirically or theoretically applied to the sun (from a knowledge of stellar formation and magnetohydrodynamics), I am forced to conclude that my argument is the only valid one presented

  6. #66
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    Quote Originally Posted by smokeAndMirrors View Post
    Meh. Then the question is oxymoronic, based on a category error. Its second half asks "is the sun?", clearly requiring an ontological assement pertaining to an intrinsic trait or set of traits, but asking us - if I am to accept your definition of "colour" to assign a subjective value to an objective quantity. So either the question is badly posed - and therefore we need debate no further - or the definition of "colour" admits that it be well-posed. In that latter case, "colour" then either can be applied intrinsically (hence my previous post holds), or conversely is subjective, from which there is no point posting, because if I perceive the sun as red (or square) due to a vision impairment then it would be correct to say the sun is red (or square). I would contend that squareness is not a quantity that can be empirically or theoretically applied to the sun (from a knowledge of stellar formation and magnetohydrodynamics), I am forced to conclude that my argument is the only valid one presented

    Agreed, like I said; a retorical question.
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  7. #67
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    Quote Originally Posted by JimBo View Post
    I just want him to stop taking showers, my garden is water logged LOL

    Colours always amaze me, and how they are described, it is OK for sighted people, when you are young you learn that an orange (fruit) is orange, a banana is yellow and grass is green. Now when people are colour blind that green grass may well appear to them what we know as blue. So they are taught that the colour they see as blue is known as green!
    What I always wonder is how people that are blind from birth understand what colours are, they obviously can't see an orange to know what orange is!
    Another conundrum, what colour is a mirror?

    Jim
    I am slightly colour blind, as was my grandad and my brother.
    Mainly confuse blues/purple/violet they all look very very similar, purple skies in my books from primary school. Also some greens and browns look pretty much identical, green dogs to match the purple skies in my young drawings.

    I discussed it with a friend years ago, the conclusion we came too was no one can be sure they are seeing what anyone else is, we all perceive things differently, I only know something is red because I was told that the red thing is red, your statement 'Now when people are colour blind that green grass may well appear to them what we know as blue. So they are taught that the colour they see as blue is known as green!' is totally correct, its odd, I work as a graphic designer and dont run into too many problems with colours, most clients can supply the hex values for their brand colours but I did once have to retouch an image of waves breaking on a beach, too much whitewater, I spent a good few hours, thought it looked sweet, the freaking sea was now purple

  8. #68
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    Ahhhh shit!

    Funny though
    Quote Originally Posted by Bubba_Zanetti View Post
    I spent a good few hours, thought it looked sweet, the freaking sea was now purple
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    Doc's website

    The Health and Safety Act 1971

    Recklessly interfering with Darwin’s natural selection process, thereby extending the life cycle of dim-witted ignorami; thus perpetuating and magnifying the danger to us all, by enabling them to breed and walk amongst us, our children and loved ones.





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